REVIEW: Twice - This is For

my girls make it rain confetti

36:14 // July 11th, 2025 // JYP/Republic

Here’s a very useful lifehack that will instantly improve your quality of life: become a certified Twice-enjoyer™. The K-pop outfit has been churning out records for a decade now, and you’ll rarely find yourself without a new EP, LP, single, compilation, reissue or remix to jam. While I have my personal favs - Formula of Love 4evr, etc. - there is hardly a misstep to be found in their discography. Even when the second six-track project of a year doesn’t hit quite as hard as the first, it’s no big deal: there will be a new set of songs waiting for you before you know it.

This fresh set of songs is called This is For, the first Korean full length since the aforementioned Formula of Love (even if it takes three songs in English and a little French before any Korean can be heard), and it takes a decidedly different approach to much of Twice’s earlier output. Rather than basking in the dreamy vibes of last year’s With You-th or the expansive disco-isms the group has perfected over the years, This is For wastes no time on vibes and knocks down the door with punchy beats while cramming as much as possible within its fourteen tracks that rarely cross the three-minute mark. Opening cut “Four” feels like a tiny victory lap - “Twice” is mentioned eight times within one minute, hell yeah - and the subsequent title track and “Options” feel equally self-celebratory. While every chorus pops, the music doesn’t exactly allow you to memorise individual melodies: the next one’s already grabbing your attention as the previous hook is still sticking the landing. This is fine: This is For is a sugar rush and doesn’t really care about long term effects.

Thankfully, there are several more significant and memorable moments spread across the record. The ridiculously danceable “Right Hand Girl” features the most delightfully unexpected worldplay of the year - “don’t need nobody but your right hand girl” - and the one-two punch of “Battitude” and “Dat Ahh Dat Ooh” is wonderfully captivating in its bass-heavy, mildly awkward if entirely confident hornyposting (“uh (prr) kitty, kitty cat, cat” / “one look at my aura, they say, ooh-la-la”). On top of this, the final tracks of This is For seem to function as a bridge of sorts, both to previous sonic vibes and whatever may come next for Twice. Closer “Heartbreak Avenue” is a jazzily smooth antithesis to most of the album, and finishes on a lovely and entirely unexpected guitar solo - seemingly an acknowledgement that there is much more to Twice than this record may have let on.

Above all, however, This is For is a lot of fun. In part because it is fun to listen to, and in part because it’s clear the group had a fun time recording it. Sure, this may not feature any all-timers like “Cruel” or “Breakthrough”, but there is a real energy to the album that Twice have not captured on a full length scale before. It’s a little disposable and not too impactful, and that’s okay: if you’re in for a very fun 36 minutes, This is For you. If that’s not your vibe, you will have a new Twice album to jam in, let me check my calendar… a little over a month. See you then.

7.5/10